


a > 






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THE STORY 



OF 



A WONDERFUL HUNTER 



DANIEL BOONE 



BY 

HENRY W. ELSON, A.M. 



— ^— 



J. M. STRADLING & COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 
PHILADELPHIA, PA. 






34636 



Copyright, 1899 
By J. M. STRADLING & COMPANY 



COPY RECb. 



t 



JUN 2 ^ 1899 

£?fef Of CC-/^; 



WESTCOTT & THOMSON, 
ELECTROTYPERS PMILADA. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. The Deep and Solemn Wood 5 

II. Daniel Boone's Boyhood 9 

III. Removal to North Carolina 12 

IV. First Visit to Kentucky 16 

V. Strange Adventures 22 

VI. Removal to Kentucky 26 

VII. Three Girls Captured by the Indians 29 

VIII. Indian Warfare . t,^ 

IX. Daniel Boone in Captivity 38 

X. Siege of Boonesborough 42 

XI. Battle of the Blue Licks 46 

XII. Boone and the Indians 50 

XIII. Last Days of Daniel Boone 55 

XIV. A Description of the Indians as Boone found 

THEM, AND AS ThEY EXIST AT THE PRESENT DaY . 6l 

3 




DANIEL BOONE. 



THE STORY OF DANIEL BOONE. 



THE DEEP AND SOLEMN WOOD. 

Did you ever stroll through a lonely forest 
far away from where people live ? Isn't it 
delightful to rustle the dry leaves with your 
feet as you walk along? 

Then you lie down among them on your 
back and look up through the boughs of the 
great trees and see the patches of blue sky, 
whitened now and then with flying clouds far 
above. 

How still and solemn it is ! You feel like 
talking to the trees. Do you think they could 
understand you ? They seem like friends as 
they stretch their big leafy arms toward you as 
if they wanted to embrace you. If they have 
any power to love, they certainly love you and 
are glad to have you with them. 

But it isn't so silent after all. Here is a little 



DANIEL BOONE. 



brooklet bubbling by so cheerfully. It laughs 
and laughs all day long as it ripples away to 
the river. Why shouldn't it? There is no- 
thing to make it sad. 

Now you hear a bird calling to its mate far 
up in the tree-tops, and a crow, crying, '' Caw, 
caw, caw," flies across the blue spaces between 
the tops of the trees and the clouds. 

Now a merry little squirrel with its merry 
little bark runs down a sapling near you, but 
as soon as it sees you, it swishes its bushy tail 
and hurries away. 

It seems to be afraid of you. Perhaps some 
hunter has at some time shot at it or some of 
its relations, and they have learned to be afraid 
of people. 

What a joy it is to wander in the forest! 
What a sense of freedom you feel ! There is 
no one to say, '' Don't do this, or don't do 
that." 

There are no signs of '* Keep off the grass." 
You are free from every care and every re- 
straint. You have reached the great heart of 
nature and feel that you are a part of it. 

Let us now change the scene a little. Sup- 



DANIEL BOONE. 



pose you are a big boy or a man, and you 
have a dog and a gun. You start out on a 
hunting trip of several days. The dog is as 
glad to go as yourself, and even the gun 
almost seems to feel its importance. 

Over logs and brush you trip along; your 
dog is too nimble to walk; it must run. It 
makes large circles from your path; it runs 
far ahead and back to you again. When you 
raise your gun and bring down a squirrel or 
a pheasant, how frisky and happy it makes 
the dog. 

Thus you tramp along all day, over marsh 
and bog, across the streams and up the steep 
hillsides. When night comes you make a 
fire and spend the long, silent hours with 
your two friends, your faithful dog and your 
trusty gun. 

The stately trees, like "green-robed sena- 
tors," stand all around you. The wood is so 
silent, but for the occasional hoot of an owl, 
the sighing of the wind above you, and the 
crackling of the fire at your feet. How diff'er- 
ent it is from the noisy city with its rumbling 
cars and its hurrying thousands ! 



DANIEL BOONE. 



Now, let us change the picture again. Sup- 
pose the forest covers the whole country for 
many hundreds of miles in extent. It is full 
of savage Indians and wild animals, bears, 
wolves, deer, and buffalo. 

White men plunge into this wilderness and 
make it their home. They build little log 
cabins and bring their wives and children, and 
here they dwell, hundreds of miles from the 
city — too far to go there to purchase anything 
they need. There are no railroads nor even 
wagon roads. 

They must make their own clothes of the 
skins of animals, or spin and weave them 
from wool or flax. They do not wear silk 
gowns, nor kid gloves, nor high buttoned 
shoes ; their clothing is coarse, but quite com- 
fortable. 

They have few dainty things for the table. 
Their food consists of coarse bread and the 
flesh of wild animals ; but it is very good and 
wholesome, and those who get used to it 
seldom want anything better. 

Such a life in the wilderness has its charms 
as well as its dangers. A gentleman from New 



DANIEL BOONE. 



York City spent several months recently in the 
wilds of the Rocky Mountains. 

He afterward wrote for the papers about it. 
He said that the free life of the forest had a 
charm that no pen could describe, and that it 
was with a sigh of regret that he returned to 
the life of the busy, toiling city. 

A few hundred years ago all our country 
was covered with dense forests, and before 
our cities and towns and railroads could be 
built, the people had to live in the forest and 
clear the land and prepare for civilized life. 

In this little book I shall relate the story of 
one who spent his whole life in the forest, one 
who loved the solitudes of nature and who 
never grew weary of fighting the Indians and 
of chasing the deer and the buffalo. His name 
was Daniel Boone. 



II. 

DANIEL BOONE'S BOYHOOD. 

Daniel Boone was born near the Delaware 
River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1735, 



lO DANIEL BOONE. 

three years after the birth of George Washing- 
ton. The township in which Daniel was born 
was named Exeter by his father, who had come 
from Exeter, England. 

When Daniel was still a small boy, the family 
moved to Berks County, near Reading. This 
was more than one hundred and fifty years 
ago, and many wild beasts and wild Indians 
then roamed through the forests of Pennsylvania. 

Daniel Boone went to school in a little log 
school-house in the woods and learned to read 
and to write, but a higher education than this 
he never received. 

When quite a young boy he became the 
owner of a dog and a gun, and his greatest 
delight was to roam through the forest alone 
with his gun on his shoulder and followed by 
his dog. 

One morning he took his rifle and whistled 
to his dog and they started out for a hunt in 
the woods. When night came he did not 
return. By next morning his parents began 
to be alarmed. They feared that Daniel might 
have fallen into the hands of the Indians, or 
become a prey to some wild beast. 



DANIEL BOONE. II 

They now called in the neighbors and organ- 
ized a searching party. The men went by twos 
and threes in different directions and spent the 
whole day and night searching for the lost boy. 

At length one of them saw in the distance a 
thin column of smoke rising from a queer- 
looking little cabin. They approached and 
peeped in, and there sat Daniel Boone, look- 
ing like an old hunter who had settled down 
for the season. 

He was preparing his supper from some 
choice pieces of the game he had shot. He did 
this by cutting the flesh into thin pieces and 
holding them over the fire on a stick until 
cooked. 

The earthen floor of his cabin he had car- 
peted with the skins of the animals. The cabin 
was a very rude one which he himself had 
built. 

Daniel seemed to be surprised that any one 
would be uneasy about him. He took it as a 
matter of course that a hunter could not be 
expected to return at any particular time. 

He was grieved that they did not think him 
able to take care of himself; but as soon as 



12 DANIEL BOONE. 

they told him that his mother was in distress 
on account of his absence, he hastened back to 
comfort her. 

When Daniel was yet a boy he became so 
skilful with the rifle that no one in all the 
country around could excel him. No Indian 
could follow a trail better than he. 

No old hunter could find his way through 
the forest, guided by the bark on the trees, 
with more certainty than he could. Besides, 
he loved the forest, and never did he enjoy 
life so much as when buried in the depths of 
its solitude. 



III. 

REMOVAL TO NORTH CAROLINA, 

When Daniel Boone was about seventeen 
or eighteen years old his father moved with 
his family to North Carolina. It was a long 
journey through the wilderness and took many 
weeks. There was a large family of them. 

Daniel had six brothers and four sisters. 



DANIEL BOONE. I 3 

The father s first name was Squire— a singular 
name— and he called one of his sons by the 
same name. 

When they reached North Carolina they 
settled on the Yadkin River, in the northwest- 
ern part of the State. 

The Yadkin River is a mountain stream of 
great beauty, and the country was very wild. 
All that part of the State at that time was an 
unbroken wilderness. 

The Boones chose a place for a home and 
began to clear away the forest. They soon 
had a fine little farm, and here they spent many 
happy years. 

Daniel, who was so very fond of hunting, 
spent many a day in the forest with his gun. 
He was now a man, and his people had be- 
come used to his remaining in the woods over 
night. 

Sometimes his hunting trips extended to 
several weeks, and he often went a hundred 
miles from home into the territory that after- 
ward became Tennessee. 

There is a story that one night when Daniel 
was hunting deer by means of a torch-light, as 



14 DANIEL BOONE. 

they sometimes did, he saw a pair of bright 
eyes and took them for those of a deer. 

He was about to fire when he discovered that 
it was not a deer, but a young woman, a neigh- 
bor s daughter, named Rebecca Bryan, whom 
he afterward married. This story has been 
denied, and perhaps it is not true ; but it is 
true that Boone married Rebecca Bryan. 

For more than ten years he and his wife 
Hved in a cabin in the woods with a few small 
fields cleared. This was their farm, and they 
raised their crops year after year. During this 
time there was little in the life of Boone that 
would interest the reader. 

He spent much of his time hunting as usual ; 
he also went on several exploring expedi- 
tions, sometimes being away from home sev- 
eral months. Daniel Boone was what we call 
a pioneer, or frontiersman. 

A new country cannot become fitted for the 
dwelling-place of men until the pioneer goes 
before to clear away the forest and to drive 
away the wild beasts. 

The pioneer usually lives in a little log cabin 
of his own making. The logs are notched at 



DANIEL BOONE. I 5 

the ends so as to fit at the corners, and laid 
one above another until the house is about ten 
feet high. 

There is but one room, one door, and one 
window. The door is a large opening left at 
one end, the window a small opening at the 
side. Opposite the door there is an open space 
on the ground for a fireplace. The chimney is 
built outside with flat sticks like laths and plas- 
tered with mortar. 

The beds are made of poles and the bedding 
is composed of the skins of animals. If there 
is no glass for the window, the skin of a deer 
or bear is hung across the window in time of 
bad w^eather. Very often the pioneer has no 
dishes for the table except those made of wood. 

Many a pioneer family has spent a life-time 
in such a home ; and they seem to be as happy 
as we are with all our comforts and luxuries. 

Daniel Boone was a true pioneer. He had 
no desire for city life and the luxuries of the 
city home. He was quite content with home- 
spun clothes, or with those made of deer-skin, 
and the primeval forest was the home of his 
choice. 



1 6 DANIEL BOONE. 

Some pioneers, it is true, are rough and 
vicious men and almost as fierce as the wild 
animals about them; but Daniel Boone was 
mild and gentle in manners and ever faithful 
as a friend. 

His keenness in the hunt was very remark- 
able. He knew the habits of every wild ani- 
mal, and so perfect was his aim that he never 
raised his rifle without bringing down the game. 
He often killed squirrels and other small game 
without hitting them with the bullet. This he 
did by shooting into the bark of the tree just 
beneath the animal, at a point where the con- 
cussion of the bark would cause its death. 



IV. 
HRST VISIT TO KENTUCKY. 

One day when Daniel Boone was sitting 
by his fireside a visitor dropped in. It was a 
man named John Finley, and he had come to 
tell Boone something that he thought would 
interest him very much. 

He came to tell of a wonderful hunting 



DANIEL BOONE. \j 

region in which he had spent the preceding 
winter. It was several hundred miles to the 
northwest, and was called Kentucky. 

He described the new country as a vast 
wilderness in which no white man lived, but 
it abounded in game. Inhere were buffalo and 
deer in great numbers and myriads of wild 
turkeys. 

Boone's heart was fired with a longing to 
visit this hunters paradise. He told Finley 
that he would accompany him on his next visit 
to the wonderful hunting grounds. That is 
just what Finley had come for: he had heard 
of Boone as a famous hunter, and wished him 
to join a party in a trip to Kentucky. 

Boone now prepared to bid his family good- 
by, hoping to return ere long and take them 
with him next time to the new country, where 
they would make their home. He had several 
children, and the oldest boys were now large 
enough to manage the farm. 

A party of six men was formed, with Boone 
as the captain, and they set out on the first day 
of May, 1769. It was a delightful time of year ; 
the green leaves were opening from the swell- 



1 8 DANIEL BOONE. 

ing buds, and the woods echoed with the songs 
of the happy birds. 

The men wore hunting-shirts made of 
dressed deer-skins, and leggings of the same 
material with fringes down the outside. They 
wore moccasins instead of shoes. A leathern 
belt encircled the body, and from it was sus- 
pended a tomahawk. This was used for cut- 
ting small trees, poles, and the like when they 
made a tent. 

On the left of the belt was the hunting-knife, 
powder-horn, and bullet pouch. Thus prepared, 
the six brave hunters began their long journey 
through the wilderness. 

When they had journeyed for five weeks, 
they came to the top of the mountain from 
which they could see the land of promise, as 
they called it. 

It was evening, almost sunset, when they 
first opened their eyes on the wonderful scene. 
They could see over a vast tract of country, 
hills and vales, forests and canevbrakes, with 
a river or creek here and there winding silently 
among them. 

Some of the open spaces seemed to be cov- 



DANIEL BOONE. 1 9 

ered with black specks. These were found to 
be herds of buffalo grazing. 

Here on this mountain summit the men 
made their camp, and here they met after their 
hunting excursions. It was near the Red 
River, a branch of the Kentucky. 

These excursions extended over two or three 
days and sometimes more. Thus they con- 
tinued during the summer and fall till Decem- 
ber, and in all that time they did not see an 
Indian. They did not all go together while 
hunting or exploring ; they usually went by 
couples. 

One of the party named John Stewart went 
with Boone on a long trip late in December. 
They were walking along the bank of the 
Kentucky River one evening when a band of 
Indians rushed out of a cane-brake and took 
them captive. 

Their guns and knives were taken from 
them, and they were ordered to follow. At 
night they encamped around a fire where the 
Indians cooked their evening meal and told 
of their adventures. 

They treated Boone and Stewart well, in- 



20 DANIEL BOONE. 

tending perhaps to adopt them into their tribe. 
Boone knew the Indian character so well that 
he knew just what to do. He pretended to be 
well pleased with his new companions, and 
gave them no reason to think that he w^ished to 
escape. This threw the Indians off their guard. 

The two men remained with their captors 
seven days, but all this time Daniel Boone 
was planning how they might escape. 

On the seventh night, after the Indians had 
eaten a big supper and were all fast asleep, 
Boone rose and quietly awakened Stewart. 
He put his mouth to Stewart's ear and whis- 
pered, " Don't make the slightest noise." 

They each now took a gun and crept with 
cat-like tread out of the camp, and were soon 
standing under the shade of the trees. Not 
an Indian had stirred. All night they walked, 
guided by the stars overhead and the bark of 
the trees. 

When morning dawned they found that they 
were not far from their own camp on the moun- 
tain. They hastened to the spot, but alas ! the 
camp had been broken up and their four com- 
panions were gone. 



DANIEL BOONE. 21 

One of them was John Finley, who had first 
told Boone of the hunting lands of Kentucky. 
Boone and Stewart never afterward heard of 
these four friends; whether they had been slain 
by the Indians or had gone east to the settle- 
ments is not known. 

Daniel Boone and his friend Stewart still 
remained in the forest, but their ammunition 
was running low, and they now used the 
greatest care to avoid the Indians. 

Early in January, as they walked one day 
near a dense wood, they saw in the distance 
the forms of two men. It was too far to dis- 
tinguish white men from Indians, and Boone 
and Stewart hid behind trees and held their 
rifles ready for use. The men crept cautiously 
toward them, and when in hailing distance, 
Boone cried out, 

'' Halloo, strangers, who are you ?" 
*' White men and friends," came the answer. 
The men now hastened to each other, and you 
can imagine their joy to find that one of the 
new comers was Daniel Boone's brother. Squire 
Boone, and the other a friend from North Car- 
olina. They had brought a good supply of 



22 DANIEL BOONE. 

ammunition and the good news that all was ' 
well at home. 

That night must have been a happy one to \ 
those four men in the wilderness of Kentucky. 



V. 

STRANGE ADVENTURES. 

These four hardy pioneers now determined 
to spend the winter together in the forest. 
They again divided in couples, though it might 
have been much better for them had they kept 
together. 

Daniel Boone was hunting one day in com- 
pany with Stewart when suddenly they were 
fired on by a party of Indians, and poor Stewart 
fell dead, shot through the heart. 

Boone dashed into the forest with the fleet- 
ness of a deer and escaped unhurt. As he ran 
he looked back over his shoulder and saw the 
Indians scalp Stewart. 

When the Indians kill an enemy, they cut 
off the scalp with a tuft of hair from the top of 
the head. These they keep as trophies of vie- 



DANIEL BOONE. 23 

tory and hang them up in their wigwams or 
wear them in their belts. 

It was a sad day when Daniel Boone came 
back to camp without his friend ; but another 
misfortune was soon to follow. The friend 
who had come with Squire Boone from North 
Carolina got lost in the wood. 

The Boone brothers searched for him many 
days, but all in vain. They never saw nor 
heard of him again. The two brothers were 
now left alone in the depths of the great forest. 

Four of their companions had disappeared, 
no one knew how; another had been shot, and 
still another had been lost. What would the 
two who remained now do ? Their ammuni- 
tion was again running low. 

One would think that they would have gone 
back to their homes and not ventured again on 
the dangerous ground without a strong force 
with them for defense. But strange to say, 
Daniel Boone decided to send his brother 
home for ammunition while he would remain 
in that wild region alone ! 

This man had come to love the solitudes of 
the forest with a great and undying love. The 



24 DANIEL BOONE. 

lonely wilderness was a world of enchantment 
to him. lie did not feel lonely, no more than 
a bee among flowers. 

The trees and the plants and the flowers 
were to him as things of life ; he communed 
with them as with companions. He knew no 
fear ; he triumphed over danger. Many years 
later, speaking of this summer alone in the 
wilds of Kentucky, he said : 

" No populous cities, with their stately 
structures, could afford so much pleasure to 
my mind as the beauties of nature I found 
here." 

But Boone had another reason for wishing 
to remain. He desired to explore the country 
and become thoroughly familiar with it with a 
view of bringing his family to dwell there. 

During his three months alone he made 
long exploring excursions; and in all that time 
he saw no human being, not even an Indian. 
But he saw many traces of Indians and often 
heard them when he knew they were trying to 
entrap him. He was so wily and skilful that 
he always knew when they were near and 
eluded them. 



DANIEL BOONE. 2 5 

Squire Boone, after a long and dangerous 
journey, came back to Daniel the last of July, 
and brought with him two good horses. 

The brothers now mounted their horses and 
rode westward to the Cumberland River. They 
explored nearly all of central Kentucky, spend- 
ing nearly a year more in the forest. 

In March, 1771, they came back to the Ken- 
tucky River, and here they decided to make 
their future home. 

Now they packed up all the skins their horses 
could carry and set out on a long journey over 
the mountains for North Carolina. 

Daniel had been absent two years, and in 
that time he had not tasted salt nor bread. His 
family had not heard from him for nearly a 
year, nor did they even know that he was alive. 

We can imagine the joy in that family when 
he came to the door — how the children ran to 
greet him, how his loving wife embraced him, 
and how eagerly they listened to the wonder- 
ful stories of his strange adventures in the 
wilderness. 



26 DANIEL BOONE. 

* 

REMOVAL TO KENTUCKY. 

Daniel Boone came back to North Caro- 
lina, not to remain, but to take his family with 
him to Kentucky. There had been others ex- 
ploring parts of the Kentucky territory as well 
as Boone, but no permanent settlements had 
been made. 

Now he determined to take his family and 
as many others as would go and make a per- 
manent settlement in the great forest. But it 
was two years before he could sell his little 
farm on the Yadkin River and be fully ready 
to start. 

At last they were ready to begin their dan- 
gerous journey over the mountains. They 
bade their old friends and neighbors goodby, 
and set out in September, 1773. 

The party consisted of Daniel Boone, his 
family, and his brother Squire ; but before they 
had gone far they were joined by several other 
families and by forty men well armed. 

Their goods were carried on pack-horses. 
They drove with them a small herd of cattle. 



DANIEL BOONE. 2/ 



At night they made their camp near a spring 
or stream of water. 

The men cut long poles, laid one end on 
the ground and raised the other on forks. On 
these sloping poles tent-cloth or skins were 
spread for a roof. A fire was then kindled at 
the open end, and beds were made of leaves 
and skins on the ground back of the fire. 

It was not a hardship for these travelers to 
fare in this way; they were used to out-door 
life, and nothing pleased them better. They 
were a happy company as they journeyed over 
the mountains toward the promised land, as 
Boone called it. 

But a sad disaster was soon to overtake 
them. Seven young men were driving the 
cattle, and these were a few^ miles behind the 
rest of the company. 

They had now been on the way several 
weeks and were near an opening in the Cum- 
berland Mountains, called the Cumberland Gap, 
when one day the men heard the firing of guns 
behind them. 

They hastened back to the young men driv- 
ing the herd of cattle and found that the In- 



28 DANIEL BOONE. 

dians had fired on them and killed six of the 
young men. The seventh was wounded and 
the cattle were driven off. One of the slain was 
the eldest son of Daniel Boone, a lad of seven- 
teen years. 

This was sad, indeed, and the whole com- 
pany was greatly discouraged. They called a 
council to decide what to do. Some favored 
going on, but most of them thought it best 
not to proceed till the Indians became more 
peaceable. 

They turned about and went to a settlement 
on the Clinch River in Virginia, and here they 
dwelled for nearly two years. 

During part of these two years Daniel Boone 
was engaged in Indian warfare and was made 
captain by the governor of Virginia. The war 
over, he went with other pioneers to the Ken- 
tucky River and built a fort, afterward called 
Boonesborough. 

This fort was made by building a number 
of strong log houses very close together and 
enclosing a piece of ground the shape of a 
parallelogram. It was quite strong and a 
good protection against the Indians. 



DAXIEL BOONE. 29 

As soon as the fort at Boonesborough was 
finished, Daniel Boone went to the CHnch 
River for his family, and again they started 
across the mountains for the Kentucky wilder- 
ness. 

They met with no misfortune this time, 
and late in the summer of 1775 they reached 
Boonesborough. 

Here they made their home, and as Daniel 
Boone afterward said, his wife and daughters 
»were the first white women that ever stood on 
the banks of the Kentucky River. 



VII. 

THREE GIRLS CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS. 

The wife and daughters of Captain Boone 
were not long the only women at Boones- 
borough. Other families soon joined them, 
and they had a flourishing little colony. 

The Boones had now been here almost a 
year and nothing serious had happened. But 
one day in July, 1776, a few days after the 
Declaration of Independence was passed by 



30 DANIEL BOONE. 

Congress, three Boonesborough girls had a 
strange experience. 

They were Betsey Calloway, her sister 
Frances, and Jemima Boone, daughter of 
Daniel. Miss Calloway was almost a young 
lady ; the two other girls were about thirteen 
years old. 

The three were playing in a canoe in the 
edge of the river near the fort. They were 
laughing cheerfully and paddling in the water 
when they heard a rustle in the leaves near 
them. They looked up and lo ! there stood 
a big Indian warrior. 

The girls crouched in terror and were about 
to scream, when the Indian flourished a toma- 
hawk over their heads and warned them to be 
silent. 

He then stepped into the canoe and started 
across the river, still threatening them with 
death if they made any outcry. On reaching 
the shore, he motioned them to leave the boat, 
and they could do nothing but obey. 

They were now joined by several other In- 
dians, and they all began the journey through 
the forest, the girls being forced to walk ahead. 



DANIEL BOONE. 



Thus they walked all day and all night, and at 
the dawn of the next day they were more than 
thirty miles from home. The poor girls were 
very tired, but the Indians feared pursuit and 
would not let them rest. 

Soon after the capture of the three girls they 
w^ere missed by their families. An alarm was 
given, and the men soon found that the canoe 
had been taken across the river. Then they 
found the tracks of the Indian moccasins and 
understood it all ; but it was evening, and no 
pursuit could be begun before morning. 

Next morning, as soon as it was light 
enough to follow a trail, they began the pur- 
suit. All the men in the fort were ready to go; 
but Daniel Boone said there must be only a 
few, the bravest men in the fort, the best 
marksmen, and the swiftest runners. He then 
chose seven men besides himself, and they at 
once set out. 

Boone knew all about the woods, and could 
follow a trail with the keenness of a blood- 
hound. The Indians expected to be followed, 
and they had gone through a cane-brake, many 
miles in extent, for the purpose of throwing 



32 DANIEL BOONE. 

the pioneers off the track. But Boone led his 
men around the cane-brake, a distance of thirty 
miles, and sure enough here he found where 
the Indians had left it. 

The captured girls had broken off a twig 
here and there, or made deeper tracks in the 
ground when they could do so without being 
noticed. Their object was to make the trail 
easier to follow. 

The evening of the second day came. The 
poor girls had been forced to walk all that time, 
and they were now about fifty miles from 
home. 

Their hearts were very sad, for they began 
to fear that they might not be rescued. The 
Indians now stopped and began to build a fire 
to encamp for the night. 

When Indians take captives, they always 
kill them, if they do not feel sure that they can 
take them to their homes. 

Had they knowm that the pioneers were so 
near, these three young girls would no doubt 
have been slain ; but they had come so far that 
they fully believed the white men would not 
find them. 



\ 



DANIEL BOOXE. 33 

While some were kindling the fire and the 
others watching the girls, behold what hap- 
pened ! Four rifle shots were heard but a few 
rods away, and four Indians fell to the ground 
dead or wounded. 

The next instant eight men rushed into the 
camp with the speed of deer. The Indians 
had not time to kill their captives ; they had to 
run for their lives, not having time to get their 
guns to take with them. Before they got out 
of reach, two more of them were shot. 

Imagine the joy of these three tired young 
girls to see their fathers and friends come to 
their rescue. Imagine the joy of their mothers 
when they reached home a few days later, safe 
and sound. 



VIII. 

INDIAN WARFARE. 



Life in the forest has its charms, but there 
is a loneliness about it that one who does not 
love solitude can scarcely endure. 

The pioneer lives with his family in a little 



34 DANIEL BOONE. 

cabin surrounded by dense forests, with here 
and there a cleared spot on which he raises his 
crops. All around them is one vast solitude. 

The silence is broken at night only by the 
howl of the wolf, the shriek of the panther, or 
the hoot of the owl ; while during the day, it is 
said, the solitude is still more oppressive. 

The noise of the wild turkey, the croak of 
the raven, or the tapping of the w^oodpecker 
on a hollow tree seem only to deepen the dead 
silence of the wilderness. 

Yet men come to love this lonely life and 
would not exchange it for all the comforts of 
the city. The American pioneer had little to 
fear from wild animals, however fierce. He 
soon learned their habits, and easily became 
their master. 

But the Indian — this was the enemy that so 
often brought sorrow to the home of the fron- 
tiersman. When a man went to his fields to 
work, he was never sure that some dusky 
warrior was not lurking in the thicket waiting 
to send a bullet or an arrow to his heart. 

He dared not go outside his door unarmed ; 
he dared not allow his children to go far from 



DANIEL BOONE. 35 

the cabin lest they be carried away by the red 

men. 

He went about his work in silence, always 
watching for a concealed foe. Even his faith- 
ful dog was trained not to bark as nature 
prompted, but to watch, like his master, for the 
lurking savage. 

The Indian could imitate almost any animal 
in the forest. He could bark like a wolf or 
hoot like an owl. He could imitate the wild 
turkey, the panther, or the wild cat so perfectly 
that none but the experienced woodman could 
detect the deception. Many an untrained 
hunter was lured to his death in this way by 
the wily savage. 

During the summer of 1777 the Indians 
became very hostile in Kentucky. They had 
signed away all that land by treaty and had no 
right there; but this was during the Revolu- 
tionary War, and the English kept them stirred 
up against the white settlers. 

On the fourth of July of this year, the day 
on which the Declaration of Independence was 
one year old, a large band of Indians made an 
attack on Boonesborough. 



,g DANIEL BOONE. 

The men in the fort seized their rifles and 
ran to the loopholes, left in the walls for the 
purpose. Through these they fired on the 
Indians, and many a painted warrior, pierced 
by the pioneer's bullet, was stretched upon 
the ground. 

During the siege every man and boy who 
could handle a gun had his rifle and stood at 
his hole in the wall, while the women and 
girls moulded the bullets and loaded the rifles. 
The siege continued for two days and 
nights, when the Indians gave it up and went 
away. One man in the fort had been killed 
and several wounded. 

Wonderful was the skill in wood-craft ac- 
quired by some of our early pioneers ; and in 
this perhaps no one ever surpassed Daniel 

Boone. 

His aim with the rifle was unerrnng ; his 
knowledge of the woods was such that he 
could find his way on the darkest night. 

No Indian could follow a trail nor imitate 
the cry of an animal or a bird more perfectly 
than he. He could outwit the wily savage and 
beat him at his own game. 



DANIEL BOONE. 37 

But the craftiest woodman cannot always 
come out ahead, and Captain Boone had his 
trials with the rest. 

It was New Year Day, 1778, when Boone 
took a band of thirty men and went to the 
Lower Salt Licks on the Licking River to 
make salt. 

The place was so called because animals 
would gather there and lick the ground for the 
salty taste. 

The labor of bringing salt for daily use 
across the mountains from the East was too 
great, and they decided to make it themselves. 
They did this by boiling the water until noth- 
ing remained but the salt. 

They had worked with success for several 
weeks when one day, while Boone was hunting 
alone in the forest some miles from camp, he 
suddenly found himself surrounded by a large 
band of Indians. 

He made a dash for liberty ; but it was too 
late. A dozen howling warriors rushed upon 
him, and for the second time in his life Daniel 
Boone found himself a prisoner in the hands 
of his deadly enemy. 



,8 DANIEL BOONE. 

IX. 
DANIEL BOONE IN CAPTIVITY. 

The Indians were very proud of their cap- 
ture. They had Icnown Boone for a long time 
as the most skilful hunter and Indian fighter m 
the West. Now they had him in their power ; 
but they treated him kindly. 

They promised him also that if he would 
surrender the other men at the Salt Lick, 
their lives should be spared and they should 
be well treated. 

Boone agreed to this, as he knew that it 
would mean death to them all if they resisted 
so large a band of Indians. The men were 
therefore all made prisoners, and the Indians 
kept their word and treated them well. 

The whole band now proceeded with their 
prisoners to Old ChiUicothe, Ohio, an Indian 
town on the Little Miami River, about forty 
miles west of the present city of Chillicothe. 
From here they took Boone and ten other 
prisoners north to Detroit, Michigan. Here 
the British commander offered the Indians a 



DANIEL BOONE. ^g 

hundred pounds sterling for Boone, but they 
refused to give him up. They gave up the 
other prisoners, but took Boone back with 
them to Chillicothe. 

Ohio is now covered with cities, towns, and 
farm-houses, but at that time it was a dense, 
pathless wilderness. 

The Indians had been very friendly toward 
Boone, and now he discovered what they in- 
tended to do with him. They had decided to 
adopt him into their tribe. 

This tribe of Indians was called the Shaw- 
anoes. Their chief, Blackfish, had recently lost 
a son, and Daniel Boone was now to be 
adopted by him to take the place of that 
son. 

The method of adoption is a severe one. 
All the hair of the head is plucked out by 
a long and painful process, except a tuft on 
the crown three or four inches in diameter. 
This tuft is then dressed up with ribbons 
and feathers. 

The candidate is then taken to the river in a 
nude condition and most thoroughly scrubbed, 
"to wash all the white blood out of him,'' 



40 DANIEL BOONE. 

as they say. After this he is painted and led 
back to the chief, who makes a long speech, 
stating what an honor it is to be adopted by 
them. 

Daniel Boone, after going through with all 
this, became, as they supposed, a true Indian. 
The chief and his wife showed great affection 
for him, and, indeed, all the tribe treated him 
as a friend and brother. They had reasons for 
this. 

They knew Boone as a just and humane 
man, as a wonderful hunter and warrior. Yet 
he never boasted ; nor had he ever stolen 
horses or anything else from them, as many 
men white did, nor treated an Indian with 
cruelty when in his power. These qualities 
won from the Shawanoes the highest admira- 
tion. They were greatly pleased to have so 
valuable an addition to their tribe. 

Boone pretended to be well pleased with his 
new home and his new companions. He at- 
tended their war-dances and their shootings 
matches, and went on hunting trips with them. •" 

He w^as the best marksman in the tribe, but 
often allowed them to excel him in the shoot- 



DANIEL BOONE. 4 1 

ing match, for he feared that he might arouse 
their envy. 

In the course of several months the Indians 
came to believe that Boone was perfectly con- 
tented to live with them. But in his heart he 
was planning all the time how to escape. His 
heart was not with them ; he was longing for 
his wife and children far away at Boones- 
borough. 

One day when he returned from a trip with 
several Indians he found that four hundred 
and fifty warriors were planning to go to 
Kentucky and make an attack on Boones- 
borough. 

Now his heart was fired anew with the love 
of his kindred, and he determined to escape or 
die in the attempt. He knew the weak con- 
dition of Boonesborough, and feared that all 
his friends would be killed if the Indians made 
the attack. 

On the morning of the sixteenth of June, 
nearly seven months after leaving home, he 
rose at sunrise and started out to hunt, as they 
thought. 

But as soon as he got out of sight of the 



42 DANIEL BOONE. 

village, he started on the long journey of one 
hundred and sixty miles to Boonesborough. 

The whole distance was a wilderness. 
Boone knew he would be followed, and ran 
day and night until he reached the Ohio River. 
This he crossed in an old canoe which he found. 

Now he felt safer and stopped, shot a 
turkey, kindled a fire, and cooked it. This 
was his only meal in the entire journey of five 
days. 

He reached the fort in safety on the fifth day, 
and seemed to his friends as one risen from 
the grave. 

But his wife, supposing him to be dead, had 
taken the children and gone back to North 
Carolina, where she was living with her father. 



X. 

SIEGE OF BOONESBOROUGH. 



Daniel Boone was much disappointed that 
his wife and children were gone ; but he had 
little time to think about it. He told his 
friends in the fort that a large army of Indians 



DANIEL BOONE. 43 

would soon be upon them, and they must be 
fully prepared. 

The fort had been neglected and was much 
out of repair. They all worked with great 
vigor for ten days when all was in readiness, 
but no enemy had yet come. 

Boone then took a small band of men and 
made an excursion into the Indian country. 
Here he discovered that a large body of In- 
dians, commanded by a British officer, was 
about to start for Boonesborough. He 
hastened back with his companions to the fort 
and awaited the attack. 

On the day after they had reached Boones- 
borough, the Indian army appeared before the 
walls. The British commander sent Boone a 
demand that the fort be surrendered. 

Boone asked two days to consider it, which 
was granted. At the end of the two days he 
informed the English officer that they had de- 
cided to defend the fort till not a man was left 
alive, if necessary. 

The officer was much disappointed ; he had 
hoped to take the fort without bloodshed and 
to make prisoners of the inmates. He now 



44 DANIEL BOONE. 

offered more liberal terms, and asked Boone to 
confer with him outside the walls. 

Boone suspected treachery on the part of the 
Indians. He therefore took with him eight of 
the strongest men in the company and met an 
equal number of the enemy outside the fort. 

The terms offered were so liberal that 
Boone decided to accept them. The papers 
were signed and everything seemed to promise 
a happy ending. 

At this point a big Indian chief came for- 
ward and made a speech. He expressed his 
joy that such an agreement had been reached ; 
then he proposed that, according to an old In- 
dian custom, two Indians shake, hands with 
each white man as a token of friendship. 

Boone suspected a trick. He had noticed 
that the whole body of the enemy had been 
drawing nearer. Why should two Indians 
shake hands at the same time with one white 
man? It looked as if treachery was intended; 
but Boone and his men were ready for it. . 

The moment the Indians had grasped the 
white men's hands, they grappled with them 
and attempted to hold them fast, and the 



DANIEL BOONE. 45 

whole body of Indians rushed forward to their 
assistance. 

Boone and his men were strong and active ; 
they wrenched themselves free in an instant 
and ran for the fort, when the Indians opened 
fire on them. Only one was hurt, Squire 
Boone, who received a bullet in the leg. 

The men in the fort now fired upon the 
Indians, and several were killed. There were 
but fifty men in the fort, but they were fearless 
and strong, and they determined to defend it 
to the last. 

A regular siege was begun by the enemy 
and kept up for nine days and nights ; but 
their bullets could not penetrate the logs. 

At one time they set fire to the fort with 
a fire-brand attached to an arrow. A young 
man leaped upon the roof and put out the fire. 
He worked for some minutes amid a regular 
hailstorm of bullets and arrows, but escaped 
unhurt. 

During the siege the Indians fought mostly 
from behind trees and other objects ; and every 
time one put his head out, he w^as sure to be 
shot by some pioneer's bullet. 



46 DANIEL BOONE. 

After nine days, the Indians seeing that they 
could not subdue the fort, gave it up and de- 
parted. There had been five hundred of them, 
about forty of whom were killed and a large 
number wounded. The pioneers had two 
killed and four wounded. 

When the enemy had gone, nearly three 
thousand musket balls, making one hundred 
and twenty-five pounds of lead, were picked up 
around the fort. The Indians had kept so far 
aw^ay that most of their balls fell to the ground 
without penetrating the walls. 

This was the last attack ever made on 
Boonesborough. Soon after this Daniel Boone 
made a journey over the mountains to his wife 
and children in North Carolina. 



XI. 

BATTLE OF THE BLUE LICKS. 

In the history of Kentucky there is nothing 
more sad to relate than the story of the battle 
of the Blue Licks. 

It was nearly two years after Daniel Boone 



DANIEL BOONE. 47 

had departed for North Carolina until he re- 
turned again with his family to Kentucky. In 
that time scores of settlers had been killed by 
roving bands of Indians. 

Soon after his return he and his brother 
Squire were making a trip to the Licking River 
when they were suddenly fired on by a large 
body of Indians. 

Squire Boone was instantly killed. Daniel 
ran for his life, a dozen or more savages after 
him. He left them all behind, when they set a 
large trained dog on his trail. 

The dog followed him for some miles 
through the forest, when he turned and shot 
the animal and escaped. The Indians believed 
that he had a charmed life. 

Daniel Boone was deeply grieved at the 
death of his brother. They were more than 
brothers. Long years they had spent together 
in the wilderness, where they had shared each 
other's adventures and hardships. 

Now we come to the sad story of the Blue 
Licks. The people at Boonesborough heard 
that an army of five hundred Indians had 
made an attack on Bryants Station not far 



48 DANIEL BOONE. 

away. They were led by Simon Girty, a rene- 
gade white man, who had become an Indian 
chief, and who gloried in shedding the blood 
of his own race. 

Girty had been driven from Bryant's Station 
with a loss of thirty of his warriors. He then 
led them northward to a place on the Licking 
River called Blue Licks. 

One hundred and eighty armed men started 
in pursuit. Boone advised them not to do so ; 
but they were eager for a fight and rushed on. 

The Indians lay in ambush, hid in the 
thickets, brush, and ravines, until the pioneers 
came up, when they leaped up with dreadful 
yells and opened fire. 

The white men fought like heroes and killed 
many ; but their number was too small for such 
a force. They had to retreat or all would have 
been slain. But they could not go back the 
way they came ; it was filled with howling 
savages. 

They made a dash for the river near by. 
Many were struck down with the deadly toma- 
haw'k before they reached the water's edge ; 
others were shot while swimming across, but a 



DANIEL BOONE. 49 

great many reached the other shore and were 
saved. 

Let us look for our hero, Daniel Boone. 
Where was he during this fierce battle? He 
was in the midst of the slaughter, and two of 
his sons were fighting by his side. One of 
them was wounded, but escaped; the other 
fell dead at his father's feet. 

To save him from the scalping knife, Boone 
seized the lifeless body of his boy, threw it 
over his shoulder, and started to run. But a 
murderous savage ran toward him with up- 
lifted tomahawk. Boone dropped the dead 
boy and shot the Indian dead. 

Again he was about to take up his burden, 
but a dozen red men rushed toward him and 
he had to leave the body and run for his life. 
He soon reached the river, swam across, and 
was saved. 

The battle of the Blue Licks brought mourn- 
ing to many a pioneer's home in Kentucky. 
One-third of the men that went into the fight 
were left dead on the field ; but so perfect was 
their aim that the loss of the Indians was still 
greater. 



50 DANIEL BOONE. 

This battle took place in August, 1782. The 
Indians were greatjy punished for this deed. 
A few weeks after the battle General Clark 
marched into the Indian country with a thou- 
sand soldiers. The Indians fled in all direc- 
tions. 

Clark spread disaster over all their lands in 
southwestern Ohio, destroyed their crops, and 
laid five of their towns in ashes. 

The Indians now concluded that it would be 
impossible to drive the white people out of 
Kentucky, and they never afterward attempted 
it. 



XII. 
BOONE AND THE INDIANS. 

After the battle of the Blue Licks the In- 
dians never again invaded the State of Ken- 
tucky with an army ; but small bands of them 
often made raids through the settlements, 
burning the cabins and murdering or carrying 
off the inmates. 



DANIEL BOONE. 5 I 

One day Daniel Boone had an experience 
that might have been serious, but it turned out 
to be amusing. He was in his tobacco house, 
a small enclosure built of rails. 

He never used tobacco, but raised it, as 
many of the settlers did. In this house he 
had placed tiers of rails and on these the 
tobacco was placed to dry. 

He was now standing on the rails above the 
door removing the dry tobacco to make room 
for the rest of his crop, when four stalwart 
Indian warriors appeared at the door. 

Boone recognized them as the same men 
who had taken him prisoner near the Salt 
Licks several years before. They knew him, 
and had come a long way for the purpose of 
capturing him. They were able to speak Eng- 
lish, and all pointing their muskets toward his 
breast, one of them said : 

"We got you, now, Boone; you no get 
away ; we carry you to Chillicothe." 

Boone pretended to be pleased, and said : 
'' How are you, friends ? I'm glad to see 
you." 

The Indians knew they were too near the 



52 DANIEL BOONE. 

settlements to be safe, and ordered Boone to 
come down immediately and follow them. 

'' I don't see any help for it," said Boone, 
" but as I have started to shift this tobacco, I 
hope you'll wait a few minutes till I finish it. 
Just watch the way I do it." 

The four savages became interested in the 
work and stood a few minutes looking up 
at him. Boone kept talking to them as if 
they were old friends making him a pleasant 
call. 

Presently he put a large pile of tobacco just 
above their heads and then quickly pulled the 
rails apart. Down came the tobacco into their 
faces. 

At the same instant the pioneer jumped 
down among them with his arms full of the 
dry, broken leaves and threw it into their eyes 
and mouths. It was all done so quickly that 
the Indians had no time to prevent it. 

The next moment Boone was running to- 
ward his cabin. Just before reaching it he 
looked back and saw the four w^arriors groping 
about as if playing blind-man's buff, trying to 
rub the tobacco-dust out of their eyes. They 



DANIEL BOONE. 53 

were soon off to the woods, and Boone was 
safe in his home. 

There were many thrilling adventures in the 
life of Daniel Boone, as in the life of many a 
brave pioneer, that the world will never know. 

Hardly a month would pass on the frontier 
but the hardy pioneer had some strange experi- 
ence — an encounter with a wild animal or with 
wild Indians. 

What would seem to us a thrilling experi- 
ence was to them a common occurrence, and 
they thought little about it. 

I shall here relate one more adventure of 
Daniel Boone — one that he related to a friend 
when an old man, many years after it oc- 
curred. 

He was hunting and exploring one day on 
the banks of the Green River, and when night 
came prepared and ate his supper and lay 
down to sleep. He had put out his fire so 
that no Indians, if there were any near, could 
see where he was. 

Scarcely had he fallen asleep when he felt 
many hands clutching his throat. Opening his 
eyes he found himself in the midst of a mob 



54 DANIEL BOONE. 

of Indians. They had watched until his fire 
was extinguished, and then crept silently to 
where he was and made him prisoner. 

Boone made no resistance, and they took 
him to their camp a few miles away, where they 
bound him with cords. There were two or 
three squaws with the warriors, and they 
seemed to take more pleasure in their capture 
than the men. 

They assured Boone again and again that he 
would be put to death the next morning. So 
great was their glee that they danced and sang 
around the fire for a long time. They had a 
bottle of strong whiskey and drank of it until 
some of them could hardly stand. 

Presently a shot was heard near the camp. 
The Indians now consulted for a time and de- 
cided that the men take their guns and go into 
the forest to find where the shot came from, 
while the women remain to guard the 
prisoner. 

Soon after the warriors had gone, the squaws 
again began to pass the whiskey bottle from 
one dirty mouth to another. They were soon 
so drunk that they couldn't stand up. They sat 



DANIEL BOONE. 55 

down, but still kept drinking until they rolled 
over and went to sleep. 

Boone lay there, tightly bound, watching 
them. He now thought his moment for action 
had come. That night he must make his 
escape or perish on the morrow. But he was 
securely bound hand and foot. What could 
he do ? 

When a man's life is in danger, he can 
usually find a way, if there is a way. Boone 
rolled over and over till he reached the fire ; 
then he held his wrists to the blaze and burnt 
off the cord, though it blistered the skin. Next 
he burned the cords from his feet, and in a few 
minutes he had his rifle and was speeding 
through the darkness toward his home. 



XIII. 

LAST DAYS OF DANIEL BOONE. 

Kentucky was now the home of many 
thousands of settlers. It had belonged to Vir- 
ginia from Colonial days, but in 1792 it became 
a State. Only one State was admitted into the 
Union before Kentucky, and that was Vermont. 



56 DANIEL BOONE. 

Daniel Boone was growing old. He had 
seen many hardships, and now he hoped 
to spend a happy old age on his farm near 
Boonesborough ; but there were many sorrows 
still in store for him. 

It was found that his title to his farm 
was not good — at least the land speculators 
made it so appear — and he had to lose the 
farm. 

After doing so much to make Kentucky 
what it was, he found himself, now in his old 
age, without a home and deeply in debt. 

About this time Boone made a visit to the 
home of his boyhood near Reading, Pa. But 
alas ! what a change ! Of the friends whom he 
had known when a boy, all but a few had 
passed away ; and the forest in which he had 
loved to stroll had been cleared away. 

A large city with its stately mansions had 
grown on the spot where he had seen but a 
wooden village in the years gone by. Here 
could be no home for Daniel Boone, the child 
of the forest. He longed for the solitude of 
the West. Again he turned his face toward the 
setting sun. 



I 



DANIEL BOONE. 5/ 

But he had determined not to make his home 
again in Kentucky. With his family he jour- 
neyed eastward from Boonesborough until they 
came to the point of land in Virginia where 
the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio, and 
here Boone built a cabin and dwelled for sev- 
eral years. 

The cabin was in a deep forest, and no one 
else lived near. Two hunters came to his 
lonely home one day, and Boone persuaded 
them to stay and hunt with him for several 
days. They had come from the far west, be- 
yond the Mississippi River, and they gave 
glowing accounts of the hunting lands in that 



region. 



Boone's youth seemed to return ; his heart 
was again fired with the desire to plunge into 
the unknown wilderness. He soon made 
ready and began the long journey to the 
West. 

It was a long, long journey for one of his 
age. He crossed the Father of Waters to the 
new promised land, and made his new^ home in 
the wilderness near where St. Louis now 
stands. That country then belonged to Spain. 



58 DANIEL BOONE. 

It soon after passed into the possession 'of 
France, and in 1803 became the property of 
the United States through the Louisiana Pur- 
chase. 

Daniel Boone found here a fine hunting 
ground, indeed. Wild animals roamed the 
forest in great abundance, and he could follow 
the vocation he loved to his heart's content. 
Even here in his old age he had various ad- 
ventures with the Indians ; but lest our story 
be too long, we must omit them. 

There was one thing that troubled Boone's 
conscience very much at this time : he had left 
debts in Kentucky to the amount of several 
hundred dollars. But at last he saw a way 
out. 

There were many animals in Missouri w^hose 
fur was quite valuable. Boone now^ hunted 
these and sold the furs for several years, until 
he had made money enough to pay all his 
debts. 

This honest old man then made the long 
journey to Kentucky and paid off every debt, 
dollar for dollar. When he returned, he had 
but fifty cents left. 



DANIEL BOONE. 



59 



" Now," he said, " I am willing to die. This 
burden has long oppressed me; but I have 
paid every debt, and no one can say, when I am 
gone, ' Boone was a dishonest man.' " 

During the last years of his life the great 
pioneer had to give up his favorite pursuit of 
hunting. He became too feeble and his eye- 
sight failed him. His old age was made happy 
by the love of his relatives and friends, who 
almost adored him. 

Many a time when his hunting days were 
over, he would gather children and young 
people about him and tell stories of his strange, 
eventful life. 

Many of these stories were the same as the 
boys and girls, who read this little book, will 
find recorded in its pages. 

He lived to be very old, dying in 1820, aged 
almost eighty-six years. His body was laid to 
rest near his home by the side of that of his 
wife ; but many years later both were trans- 
ferred to Frankfort, Kentucky. 

The life of Daniel Boone was a strange one 
— full of changes, full of adventure, full of 
success and of failure. He always believed 



6o DANIEL BOONE. 

that Providence sent him before to prepare the 
way for civilization. 

The name of Daniel Boone will never be 
forgotten. His fame will go down in our 
history as the greatest of American pioneers. 



DANIEL BOONE. 6 1 



XIV. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE INDIANS AS BOONE FOUND 
THEM, AND AS THEY EXIST AT THE PRESENT DAY. 

When Columbus first discovered America 
in 1492, he found the land inhabited by a 
strange people unknown before to the rest of 
the world. 

These people were called Indians, because 
they were first thought to belong to India. 

Columbus believed that he had found a new 
passage to India. He did not know that he 
had discovered a new continent. 

It was found that the Indians were scattered 
thinly over all of North and South America, 
but where they came from, and how many 
hundred years they had dwelled here before 
the coming of the white man, no one can tell. 
• Many of the boys and girls in our schools 
to-day have never seen a real wild Indian, and 
I am sure that, in this book on Daniel Boone, 
they will be glad to have a few pages given to 



62 DANIEL BOONE. 

describing the appearance, nature, and habits of 
these peculiar people. 

In North America the Indians of the various ; 
tribes were found to be very much alike in 
habits and appearance. 

They are called the red race, but they are ^ 
rather copper-colored, or cinnamon-brown. 
The hair is straight and glossy and as black 
as the raven's wing. M 

No little Indian girl can have golden or 
flaxen curls, as many of you have, because * 
Nature has made her hair black and straight 
like her father's and mothers. • " 

The men never have beards, and they often 
shave off or pull out all the hair of the head, 
except a little tuft on the top of the head, called . 
the scalp-lock. 

The countenance of the Indian is usually 
serious, almost sad, and they seldom laugh or ' 
weep. 

The eyes of the Indian are small and deep- ^ 
set; the cheek-bones are large and prominent. 
The skin is soft and smooth, but often dis- 
figured by various kinds of paints. ' 

Let us take a peep into the Indian home. 



DANIEL BOONE. 63 

We do not find a well-built house with cosy 
rooms containing pictures and bric-a-brac and 
furniture. 

It is only a tent made of poles standing on 
end, fastened together at the top and spread 
out at the bottom. These are covered with 
skins or the bark of trees, and an opening is 
left for a door. 

Now, look inside the tent and get a view of 
the family circle. 

There is no floor except the bare ground, 
and the Indians are sitting around on the 
ground or on the skins of wild animals. 

The mother sits nearest the door, because she 
does all the work and must go in and out fre- 
quently. She is called the squaw. 

The father sits next to her, but he does not 
speak to her. She is making a pair of mocca- 
sins, or doing some bead-work, and she works 
in silence all day long. 

Her husband smokes a long pipe, or sits 
looking upon the ground for hours without 
saying a word ; but sometimes he is talkative 
and tells of his adventures. 

The children romp and play around him, but 



64 DANIEL BOONE. 

he takes no notice of them. He does not re- 
strain them nor play with them. 

The children are not well dressed. Some of 
them have on a girdle of fur or skin ; some 
have no clothes at all. The children all have 
dirty faces — yes, and dirty hands and feet and 
bodies. 

What an awful trouble, you would think, for 
the mother to keep her children clean! Oh no, 
it is no trouble at all. She doesn't care any- 
thing about it. She lets them go just as dirty 
as they choose. 

See, there upon a tent-pole hangs a flattened 
piece of wood with a queer little bundle 
fastened to it. What can it be ? It is a pa- 
poose — an Indian baby. There it hangs, per- 
haps all day, and seldom cries. 

Soon after the baby is born the mother 
fastens it to a block of wood. Back of the 
block a strap is securely fastened, and by this 
strap the mother swings the baby over her 
back when she goes into the forest to gather 
wood or berries. While she is at work she 
hangs the papoose on the limb of a tree. 

The Indian family have their meals, not at 



DANIEL BOONE. 65 

regular times, but whenever they get hungry. 
They live on the flesh of wild animals, wild 
rice, berries, and roots. They have no bread 
and butter, no salt nor pepper, no pies nor 
cake. 

Often in winter they have little to eat. 
They are sometimes reduced to want, and 
even starvation. At such times they bear 
their suffering in silence and without com- 
plaint. 

No other people in the world can endure 
suffering with the heroism of the American 
Indian. 

An Indian warrior, if captured in battle, will 
suffer himself to be tortured to death with fire 
w^ithout permitting a cry of pain to escape his 
lips. 

Even the children, however severely they 
may be hurt in their rough plays, seldom shed 
a tear or utter a cry. 

The Indians have no books, no schools, no 
churches. Their language is only spoken ; it is 
not written. The boys learn when very young 
to use weapons, to make bows and arrows, 
to kill birds and small animals. 



66 DANIEL BOONE. 

The girls learn to make moccasins, to dress 
skins, dig roots, and to gather wood. 

The plays engaged in by the boys are rude 
and violent — wrestling, running the gauntlet, 
throwing, and the like. 

They also often play ball, and the game is 
similar to the game of football as now played 
by college students ; but instead of kicking it 
they strike it with clubs. 

The ball they use is made of a knot of wood, 
or of baked clay covered with deer-skin. 

The men also make merry with games. 
They have their foot races, their war-dance, 
scalp-dance, and various other wild and un- 
couth games. 

There is little show of affection in the Indian 
home. The father never kisses nor embraces 
his children. 

If he is away from home for weeks, he does 
not salute his wife when he returns, nor does 
she salute him. 

But she shows her affection by giving him a 
new pair of moccasins or something else she 
has made. 

She also hastens to get him a meal, if there 



DANIEL BOONE. 6/ 

is anything to get ; if there is not, he does not 
scold ; he bears it in silence. 

The Indian in his wild state depends on the 
chase for his living. His chief weapons are 
the bow and arrow, the tomahawk, and the 
war-club. 

He learns the habits and haunts of all ani- 
mals that he wishes to obtain, and his skill 
in catching them is wonderful. 

When he kills an animal, he carries it to the 
door of his wigwam and throws it down with- 
out saying a word. The squaw then takes 
charge of it. 

Indeed, the squaw has all the hard work to 
do about the wigwam. She even carries the 
tent on her back when they move from one 
place to another. 

The man, when not engaged in hunting or 
warfare, spends his time in idleness. 

He has no ambition to do anything useful. 
He makes no improvements. What was good 
enough for his fathers is good enough for him. 

He does not desire to know anything of the 
great world beyond his own home in the 
wilderness. 



68 DANIEL BOONE. 

He does not know his own age. He notes 
the changes of the seasons and counts time by 
the moon. But how many moons ago since he 
was born, or since his children were born, he 
does not know and he does not care. 

The Indian's life is one long, dreary, hope- 
less existence in the solitudes of the wilder- 
ness. 

In war the Indian is brave and fierce, and his 
powers of endurance and his capacity for suf- 
fering are marvelous. But he is cruel and 
treacherous, and he will not fight an enemy 
fairly if he can surprise him. 

When he crouches and springs upon a foe, 
he utters a yell, so dreadful and so heart-pierc- 
ing that no one who hears it can forget it to the 
end of his life. 

When a warrior has killed an enemy, he cuts 
the scalp from the top of the head and keeps 
this as a trophy of his victory. 

This entitles him to wear an eagle feather in 
his own scalp-lock, which is the highest glory 
that an Indian can achieve. 

The Indians are all religious. They believe 
in God, whom they call the Great Spirit. 



DANIEL BOONE. 69 

When they are prosperous in war or the 
chase, they think the Great Spirit is pleased. 
When they are unfortunate, they think it is be- 
cause he is angry; and they accept his chas- 
tenings without murmuring. 

They beHeve in a future life, a Happy Hunt- 
ing-ground, where they shall all be happy 
without regard to how they have lived in this 
world. 

It is also their belief that the lower animals 
have souls and will live in the future world 
the same as men. 

What I have said about the Indians refers to 
them in their savage state, as first discovered 
in what is now the United States. 

Since then many of the remaining tribes 
have been partly civilized. They live in better 
houses and cultivate the soil. 

Schools have been established for them, and 
many of them have been taught the Christian 
religion. 

When the white people first settled in this 
country, they had many fierce conflicts with 
the Indians. 

We have heard of so many cruel and bloody 



70 DANIEL BOONE. 

deeds done by the Indians that we are apt to 
think of them only as blood-thirsty savages. 
But in fact they were scarcely more to blame 
than the white people. 

Sometimes the French and sometimes the 
English inflamed them against the Americans. 

It often happened also that dishonest Ameri- 
can traders angered the Indians by cheating 
them. 

They seldom or never practised their cruel- 
ties unless they believed their hunting-grounds 
were about to be taken from them, or were in 
some way offended by the whites. 

When once aroused they used the same 
cruel methods with the white people that they 
had always practised among themselves when 
the tribes were at war with each other. 

These methods were often shocking and bar- 
barous, and the innocent too frequently suffered 
with the guilty. 

No excuse can be offered for these barbari- 
ties ; yet we must remember that the Indians 
had been taught from childhood that to torture 
and kill an enemy was the highest virtue. 

The Indians as a race are passing away, or 




^f^«-^c-^': 







A SPECIMEN OF THE INDIANS BOONE FOUGHT. 



7 2 DANIEL BOONE. 

at least they are being crowded into the nar- 
row spaces set apart for them in the West and 
South. 

The white man came with his civihzation — 
with his schools and churches and newspapers, 
his railways and telegraph. The Indian could 
not, or would not, accept the arts of civilized 
life. 

He was but a cumberer of the land that he 
had occupied so long without improving, and 
it was no doubt the will of God that the Indian 
should be swept away to give place to a nobler 
and better race. 



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